Cap Cana Championship: First-round notebook

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CAP CANA, Dominican Republic -- David Eger's first-round 67 at the Cap Cana Championship equals his best career start on the Champions Tour. He also posted opening 67s at the 2007 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am (tied for seventh), the 2004 Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach (tied for fifth) and the 2002 Farmers Charity Classic (tied for 12th).

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Nick Price is part of a big group tied for second.

• Eger's 67 is also by far his best first round of the 2009 season. Previously this year, he opened with a 73 at the Allianz Championship (tied for 47th), a 72 at THE ACE Group Classic (tied for 40th), a 70 at the Toshiba Classic (tied for fourth) and a 70 at the AT&T Champions Classic (tied for 25th).

• Through the first six events of 2009, no first-round leaders/co-leaders have gone on to win the event.

• Defending champion Mark Wiebe finished with an even-par 72 and is tied for 27th. The Colorado native went wire-to-wire last year to win by four strokes over Vicente Fernandez in the inaugural event here.

• World Golf Hall of Fame member Greg Norman finished with a 1-over par 73 and is tied for 39th in his first regular-season start in a Champions Tour event. The event is just his sixth career start on the over Champions Tour. He made three starts on the Champions Tour in 2008 at the Senior PGA Championship (tied for sixth), Senior British Open (tied for fifth) and U.S. Senior Open (tied for fourth).

• Eger, Tom Jenkins and Tim Simpson all had bogey-free rounds on Friday. Bruce Fleisher had the day's lone eagle on the par-5 sixth hole.

• There were seven rounds in the 60s on Friday compared to just three sub-70 scores on Friday at Punta Espada last year. The field averaged 72.95 on Friday, significantly lower than last year's opening round average of 74.68. The most difficult hole was No. 18 with an average score of 4.333 (+.333). Nos. 5 and 3 ranked second and third, respectively, in difficultly. The easiest hole was No. 12 at 4.615 (-.385).

• Bernhard Langer, the current Charles Schwab Cup leader, shot a 2-under-par 70. He's now opened eight consecutive tournaments on the Champions Tour with a sub-par round, dating back to last year's Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship.

• Victor Garcia, father of 2008 PLAYERS Championship winner Sergio Garcia, received a sponsor's exemption into the field and finished with a 5-over-par 77 in his ninth career Champions Tour start and first since 2004.

• Bob Gilder made his 127th consecutive start for which he was eligible on Friday. The last time he missed an event where he was eligible was at the 2004 Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn.